DRINKING WATER
The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires reporting, record-keeping, testing requirements and restrictions for chemicals of concern, including PFAS. To help meet these requirements, U.S. EPA researchers have developed a chemical category-based approach to help prioritize PFAS for further data collection efforts.
DRINKING WATER CASE STUDIES AND WHITE PAPERS
-
Disinfection Tech Trials: How Calcium Hypochlorite Feeders Won Over Long Beach Township WTPs
In 2012 Long Beach Island, New Jersey, was pummeled by the catastrophic storm surge of Hurricane Sandy. Three of the town's four water plants were badly damaged. Plans were made to rebuild the facilities to higher standards to withstand potential storm impacts.
-
New Polyethylene Piping System Provides Clean Water For 150,000 Residents
Providing large cities with drinking water is never an easy task. Outdated systems can cause problems such as leakages or contaminations.
-
The New Way Is Two-Way – Implementing A Revolutionary R450™ System
Located on Lake Michigan 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, Evanston was named in 1857 for one of the founders of renowned Northwestern University, which predated its surrounding municipality by a couple of years.
-
Changxing Power Plant Debuts The World's First Forward Osmosis-Based Zero Liquid Discharge Application
Desalination Technology Transforms 650 m3/day of Abused Industrial Wastewater
-
Tackling Arsenic With A Cost-Effective Strategy
Arsenic presents a wide array of negative health impacts, which is why it is such a big concern for many municipal water systems.
-
Vital Fire Suppression Line Remains Live While AVT EZ Valve Is Installed
A major Texas-based refinery provides significant feedstock flexibility and product diversity to the area’s operations. The plant dates to the early 1900s and following upgrades now produces more than 125,000 barrels per day. A vital element of any refinery is its ability to be constantly ready to respond to a fire, so when the refinery found an inoperable valve on its 12” carbon steel fire suppression line and was in need of a way to add a valve to their system without shutting down the line, their maintenance and repairs contractor, ISS, suggested installing an AVT EZ Valve.
-
Halifax Water Uses Advanced Pressure Management To Reduce Leakages
Halifax Water (HW) partnered with Mueller for a performance trial of advanced pressure management and the Sentryx™ Water Intelligence Platform.
-
Cutting Energy Consumption Through Remote Leak Detection
As the U.S. water sector sharpens its net-zero strategies, the link between leakage and carbon should not be underestimated, writes Tom Cork, Channel Sales Director at technology company Ovarro.
-
Innovative Communication Tool Enables Robust And Contact-Free Control Capabilities
Two-way wireless communication can provide a wealth of benefits for municipal water utilities, including command and control abilities that underpin a wider smart city infrastructure. However, most tools currently on the market do not provide the flexibility and uncompromising speed that are necessary to enable these capabilities. The newly released Mueller® Mi.Net® LoRaWAN® (LW) node, by comparison, allows two-way data communication to take place within seconds instead of hours.
-
4 Tips For Building Meter-Related Revenue The water meter industry operates on revenue and the modern utility is both a business and a public service. This article deals with the business and revenue side of the water industry. I don’t question the ability of the modern water utility to produce safe, high-quality water. However, I am concerned about the service side, since fairness to the end users of our product and fairness to the utilities who produce this very high-quality product is important and closely related to the revenue issues. It is our job to collect the revenue to which we are entitled by the application of fair business practices and the use of accurate and cost-saving measurement devices. I will talk about building revenue by avoiding revenue loss. By Floyd S. Salser, Jr., CEO, MARS Company
DRINKING WATER APPLICATION NOTES
-
Bridge Crossings And The Proper Use Of EX-TEND®, FLEX-TEND®, And Force Balanced FLEX-TEND Products11/1/2020
Of particular interest when it comes to bridges is the locating of pressurized water lines on and under bridge structures. Pressurized pipelines can present a number of unique challenges to the design engineer and utility owner.
-
Drinking Water Testing By Ion Chromatography Using Ultrapure Water9/29/2022
This application note demonstrates the suitability of ultrapure water produced by a Milli-Q IQ 7000 water purification system for the IC analyses of inorganic ions and DBPs in drinking water.
-
The Basics: Testing RO Quality4/28/2014
Osmosis is the phenomenon of lower dissolved solids in water passing through a semi-permeable membrane into higher dissolved solids water until a near equilibrium is reached.
-
Active Energy Control – Energy Reductions Of Up To 10% Above Standard Drives4/1/2017
Energy costs continue to increase. At the same time, there is increased pressure to reduce utility bills without sacrificing operations or comfort.
-
Dosing Of Sodium Hypochlorite Solution For Drinking Water Disinfection9/22/2022
A water purveyor was in urgent need of a chemically resistant flow instrumentation with a long life of service that allowed reliable and long-term stable dosing of the sodium hypochlorite solution.
-
Determination Of Polar Pesticide Residues In Food Of Plant Origin, By And Automate QuPPe Solution9/29/2014
The QuEChERS (Quick-Easy-Cheap-Effective-Rugged-Safe) sample extraction method was developed for the determination of pesticide residues in agricultural commodities.
-
(E)-2-Nonenal In Beer4/5/2015
Numerous compounds contribute to changes in beer flavor as it becomes stale. One of these compounds, (E)-2-nonenal, has been investigated as a major source of the papery/cardboard flavor that develops in aged beer.
-
Reduced Bore Electromagnetic Flowmeter10/29/2021
Being able to accurately measure both the quantity and rate of water passing through a water distribution system is crucial to gain an informed understanding of overall efficiency. As such, achieving a measurement that is exact as possible can have a significant impact on key areas. This includes supply planning, maintenance, resource deployment, leakage detection and the overall environment.
-
Application Note: Simultaneous Determination Of Total Bound Nitrogen (TNb) And Total Organic Carbon (TOC) In Aqueous Samples5/31/2011Total bound nitrogen (TNb) consists of dissolved ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, amines, and other organic nitrogen-containing compounds. TNb measurements represent an alternative to Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) analysis for rapid screening of industrial wastewater, drinking water,agricultural run-off, and surface waters. By OI Analytical
-
Pipe Repair On A Budget3/7/2014
A new pipe-repair solution promises to save time and money, while also being sustainable, long-lasting, fully scalable, and safe for workers.
LATEST INSIGHTS ON DRINKING WATER
-
A Q&A to explain and resolve issues confronting water suppliers as they endeavor to comply with the monitoring requirements of federal PFAS regulations.
-
Assessing what lies ahead in the 10-year race to go lead-free, otherwise known as the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI).
-
Identifying challenges and solutions for the management of aging drinking water infrastructure.
-
Keys to bring down the cost of PFAS treatment for operations with limited resources — or any operation using media filtration.
-
With its innovative Harvest Water program, the Sacramento Area Sewer District supports Central Valley growers, thereby supporting the nation.
-
A new PFAS treatment system from the University of British Columbia (UBC) features a patented UV catalyst that requires only minimal light, making it much more energy-efficient. Learn more from two of the principals involved in its development.
ABOUT DRINKING WATER
In most developed countries, drinking water is regulated to ensure that it meets drinking water quality standards. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers these standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Drinking water considerations can be divided into three core areas of concern:
- Source water for a community’s drinking water supply
- Drinking water treatment of source water
- Distribution of treated drinking water to consumers
Drinking Water Sources
Source water access is imperative to human survival. Sources may include groundwater from aquifers, surface water from rivers and streams and seawater through a desalination process. Direct or indirect water reuse is also growing in popularity in communities with limited access to sources of traditional surface or groundwater.
Source water scarcity is a growing concern as populations grow and move to warmer, less aqueous climates; climatic changes take place and industrial and agricultural processes compete with the public’s need for water. The scarcity of water supply and water conservation are major focuses of the American Water Works Association.
Drinking Water Treatment
Drinking Water Treatment involves the removal of pathogens and other contaminants from source water in order to make it safe for humans to consume. Treatment of public drinking water is mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. Common examples of contaminants that need to be treated and removed from water before it is considered potable are microorganisms, disinfectants, disinfection byproducts, inorganic chemicals, organic chemicals and radionuclides.
There are a variety of technologies and processes that can be used for contaminant removal and the removal of pathogens to decontaminate or treat water in a drinking water treatment plant before the clean water is pumped into the water distribution system for consumption.
The first stage in treating drinking water is often called pretreatment and involves screens to remove large debris and objects from the water supply. Aeration can also be used in the pretreatment phase. By mixing air and water, unwanted gases and minerals are removed and the water improves in color, taste and odor.
The second stage in the drinking water treatment process involves coagulation and flocculation. A coagulating agent is added to the water which causes suspended particles to stick together into clumps of material called floc. In sedimentation basins, the heavier floc separates from the water supply and sinks to form sludge, allowing the less turbid water to continue through the process.
During the filtration stage, smaller particles not removed by flocculation are removed from the treated water by running the water through a series of filters. Filter media can include sand, granulated carbon or manufactured membranes. Filtration using reverse osmosis membranes is a critical component of removing salt particles where desalination is being used to treat brackish water or seawater into drinking water.
Following filtration, the water is disinfected to kill or disable any microbes or viruses that could make the consumer sick. The most traditional disinfection method for treating drinking water uses chlorine or chloramines. However, new drinking water disinfection methods are constantly coming to market. Two disinfection methods that have been gaining traction use ozone and ultra-violet (UV) light to disinfect the water supply.
Drinking Water Distribution
Drinking water distribution involves the management of flow of the treated water to the consumer. By some estimates, up to 30% of treated water fails to reach the consumer. This water, often called non-revenue water, escapes from the distribution system through leaks in pipelines and joints, and in extreme cases through water main breaks.
A public water authority manages drinking water distribution through a network of pipes, pumps and valves and monitors that flow using flow, level and pressure measurement sensors and equipment.
Water meters and metering systems such as automatic meter reading (AMR) and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) allows a water utility to assess a consumer’s water use and charge them for the correct amount of water they have consumed.